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Anionic Exchange Membrane for Photo-Electrolysis Application
Tandem photo-electro-chemical cells composed of an assembly of a solid electrolyte membrane and two low-cost photoelectrodes have been developed to generate green solar fuel from water-splitting. In this regard, an anion-exchange polymer–electrolyte membrane, able to separate H(2) evolved at the pho...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7765393/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33333931 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym12122991 |
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author | Lo Vecchio, Carmelo Carbone, Alessandra Trocino, Stefano Gatto, Irene Patti, Assunta Baglio, Vincenzo Aricò, Antonino Salvatore |
author_facet | Lo Vecchio, Carmelo Carbone, Alessandra Trocino, Stefano Gatto, Irene Patti, Assunta Baglio, Vincenzo Aricò, Antonino Salvatore |
author_sort | Lo Vecchio, Carmelo |
collection | PubMed |
description | Tandem photo-electro-chemical cells composed of an assembly of a solid electrolyte membrane and two low-cost photoelectrodes have been developed to generate green solar fuel from water-splitting. In this regard, an anion-exchange polymer–electrolyte membrane, able to separate H(2) evolved at the photocathode from O(2) at the photoanode, was investigated in terms of ionic conductivity, corrosion mitigation, and light transmission for a tandem photo-electro-chemical configuration. The designed anionic membranes, based on polysulfone polymer, contained positive fixed functionalities on the side chains of the polymeric network, particularly quaternary ammonium species counterbalanced by hydroxide anions. The membrane was first investigated in alkaline solution, KOH or NaOH at different concentrations, to optimize the ion-exchange process. Exchange in 1M KOH solution provided high conversion of the groups, a high ion-exchange capacity (IEC) value of 1.59 meq/g and a hydroxide conductivity of 25 mS/cm at 60 °C for anionic membrane. Another important characteristic, verified for hydroxide membrane, was its transparency above 600 nm, thus making it a good candidate for tandem cell applications in which the illuminated photoanode absorbs the highest-energy photons (< 600 nm), and photocathode absorbs the lowest-energy photons. Furthermore, hydrogen crossover tests showed a permeation of H(2) through the membrane of less than 0.1%. Finally, low-cost tandem photo-electro-chemical cells, formed by titanium-doped hematite and ionomer at the photoanode and cupric oxide and ionomer at the photocathode, separated by a solid membrane in OH form, were assembled to optimize the influence of ionomer-loading dispersion. Maximum enthalpy (1.7%), throughput (2.9%), and Gibbs energy efficiencies (1.3%) were reached by using n-propanol/ethanol (1:1 wt.) as solvent for ionomer dispersion and with a 25 µL cm(−2) ionomer loading for both the photoanode and the photocathode. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7765393 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-77653932020-12-27 Anionic Exchange Membrane for Photo-Electrolysis Application Lo Vecchio, Carmelo Carbone, Alessandra Trocino, Stefano Gatto, Irene Patti, Assunta Baglio, Vincenzo Aricò, Antonino Salvatore Polymers (Basel) Article Tandem photo-electro-chemical cells composed of an assembly of a solid electrolyte membrane and two low-cost photoelectrodes have been developed to generate green solar fuel from water-splitting. In this regard, an anion-exchange polymer–electrolyte membrane, able to separate H(2) evolved at the photocathode from O(2) at the photoanode, was investigated in terms of ionic conductivity, corrosion mitigation, and light transmission for a tandem photo-electro-chemical configuration. The designed anionic membranes, based on polysulfone polymer, contained positive fixed functionalities on the side chains of the polymeric network, particularly quaternary ammonium species counterbalanced by hydroxide anions. The membrane was first investigated in alkaline solution, KOH or NaOH at different concentrations, to optimize the ion-exchange process. Exchange in 1M KOH solution provided high conversion of the groups, a high ion-exchange capacity (IEC) value of 1.59 meq/g and a hydroxide conductivity of 25 mS/cm at 60 °C for anionic membrane. Another important characteristic, verified for hydroxide membrane, was its transparency above 600 nm, thus making it a good candidate for tandem cell applications in which the illuminated photoanode absorbs the highest-energy photons (< 600 nm), and photocathode absorbs the lowest-energy photons. Furthermore, hydrogen crossover tests showed a permeation of H(2) through the membrane of less than 0.1%. Finally, low-cost tandem photo-electro-chemical cells, formed by titanium-doped hematite and ionomer at the photoanode and cupric oxide and ionomer at the photocathode, separated by a solid membrane in OH form, were assembled to optimize the influence of ionomer-loading dispersion. Maximum enthalpy (1.7%), throughput (2.9%), and Gibbs energy efficiencies (1.3%) were reached by using n-propanol/ethanol (1:1 wt.) as solvent for ionomer dispersion and with a 25 µL cm(−2) ionomer loading for both the photoanode and the photocathode. MDPI 2020-12-15 /pmc/articles/PMC7765393/ /pubmed/33333931 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym12122991 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Lo Vecchio, Carmelo Carbone, Alessandra Trocino, Stefano Gatto, Irene Patti, Assunta Baglio, Vincenzo Aricò, Antonino Salvatore Anionic Exchange Membrane for Photo-Electrolysis Application |
title | Anionic Exchange Membrane for Photo-Electrolysis Application |
title_full | Anionic Exchange Membrane for Photo-Electrolysis Application |
title_fullStr | Anionic Exchange Membrane for Photo-Electrolysis Application |
title_full_unstemmed | Anionic Exchange Membrane for Photo-Electrolysis Application |
title_short | Anionic Exchange Membrane for Photo-Electrolysis Application |
title_sort | anionic exchange membrane for photo-electrolysis application |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7765393/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33333931 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym12122991 |
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